The Aqeedah At-Tahawiyyah: A Foundation for Understanding Islamic Theology
THE CREED OF AT-TAHAWl • • • | Aqeedah At-Tahawiyyah by Abu Ja'far At-Tahawi
(1) We say about the Unity of Allah - with Allah’s help - that Allah
is one, without any partners.
(2) There is nothing like Him.
(3) Nothing is impossible for Him.
(4) There is no god other than He.
(5) He is Eternal without a beginning, Everlasting without an end.
(6) He does not perish iyafna) or pass away (yabld).
(7) Nothing comes into being except what He wills.
(8) No imagination (w a h m ) can conceive of Him, and no
understanding (fahm) can fathom Him.
(9) He does not resemble mankind.
(10) He is Living and will never die. He is All-Sustaining and
never sleeps.
(11) He creates without being in need to do so, and provides for
His creation without any trouble (bila mu’unah).
(12) He causes death without fear, and He resurrects (the dead)
with no effort.
(13) He has always existed with His attributes, even before the
creation of the world, which did not add anything to His attributes
that were not already present. Just as He is Eternal along with His
attributes, so He is Everlasting along with them.
(14) It is not the case that He acquired the name Creator (Al-
Khaliq) only after He created, or the name Originator (Al-Bari)
only after He originated (something).
(15) He was qualified with Lordship (rubublyyah) even when there
was nothing to lord over. And He was the Creator even when there
was nothing created.
(16) In the same way that He is the “Reviver of life to the Dead”,
after He has given diem life a first time, He deserves this name
before bringing them to life; so, too, He deserves the name Creator
before He actually created them.
(17) This is because He has power over all things (kulli shayy). All
things depend on Him and are easy for Him. He is not in need of
anything. Nothing is like Him. He is the All-Hearing, the All-
Seeing.
(18) He created (khalaqa) the creation (khalq) with His Knowledge
0bi-‘ilmihi).
(19) He has ordained all things in due measure.
(20) He has fixed their terms.
(21) Nothing about them was hidden from Him before He created
them. And He knew everything they would do before He created
them.
(22) He has commanded them to obey Him and He has forbidden
them to disobey Him.
(23) Things occur as He ordains and wills them. His will is always
carried out. There is no will for His servants except for what He
wills for them. Whatever He wills for them happens and what He
does not will for them does not happen.
(24) He gives guidance to whomever He wills, protects them and
keeps them safe from harm as an act of grace. And He leads astray
whomever He wills, abases them and afflicts them out of His justice
(25) All of them are subject to His will, between either His grace or
His justice.
(26) He is exalted above having opponents (adad) or equals
(andad).
(27) His decision is never reversed; His command is never resisted;
His will is never frustrated.
(28) We believe in all of these things, and We are certain that
everything comes from Him.
(29) (And we believe and are certain) that Muhammad is His chosen
Servant (‘abd), His elect Prophet (nahi) and His Messenger (rasul),
with whom He is well-pleased.
(30) And he is the seal of the prophets.
(31) He is Leader (imam) of the Pious.
(32) He is Chief of the Messengers.
(33) He is very dear to the Lord of the Worlds.
(34) All claims to prophecy after him are false (ghayy) and fanciful
(hawa).
(35) He has been sent to all jinns and all mankind with truth,
guidance, light and illumination.
(36) The Qur’an is the word of Allah.
(37) Anyone who attributes something human to Allah is an infidel.
(38) The seeing of Allah by the people of Paradise is factual,
without their vision being all-encompassing and without the manner
of their vision being known.
(39) The foundation of Islam is not made firm except with the
support of unreserved assent and submission to Allah.
(40) He Who seeks knowledge that has been barred from him, and
whose intellect is not prepared to surrender, will be veiled from a
pure understanding of Allah’s unity, clear knowledge and correct
faith.
(41) He sways (yatadhabdhab) between faith and disbelief,
confirmation and denial, and acceptance and rejection. He will be subject to vain suggestions, perplexed and lost, neither a sincere Believer nor an open denier.
(42) The belief of a person in the seeing of Allah by the people of
Paradise is not correct if that person tries to imagine what it is like or
if he tries to interpret it according to his own understanding, since
the interpretation of this seeing or the meaning of any of the subtle
phenomena which are in the realm of Lordship, is by avoiding its
interpretation and strictly adhering to submission. This is the faith of
Islam. Those who do not refrain from negating Allah’s attributes or
conceiving them on human patterns are surely mistaken, they are
unable to glorify Allah properly.
(43) Those who do not refrain from nafi (negating the attributes of
Allah) and tashbih (imagining Allah’s attributes to be like human
attributes) go astray and fail to glorify Allah properly.
(44) For our Lord is qualified with the attributes (sifat) of
uniqueness (wahddriiyyah) and the characteristics (nu‘ut) of absolute
singularity (fardaniyyah). No created being shares with Him these
attributes.
(45) Allah is supremely exalted from definition of Him or from
being restricted, or from needing any parts, limbs or instruments. He
is not bound by the six directions of space as all created beings are.
(46) The ascension (mi‘rdj) of the Prophet (peace be on him) is a
fact. He was taken in person for a journey by night, and lifted awake
and in body to the heavens, and from there to such heights as Allah
pleased. Allah showered upon him His favors as He pleased and
revealed to him what He liked. His heart did not falsify what his
eyes saw. Blessed is he in this life and in the Hereafter.
(47) Al-Hawd (the Fountain), which Allah will grant the Prophet
(peace be upon him) as an honor to quench the thirst of his nation, is
factual.
(48) Ash-Shifa‘ah (intercession) that has been prepared on their (the
Muslims’) behalf is also a fact, as has been reported in the ahadlth.
(49) The covenant that Allah made with Adam and his descendants
is a fact.
50) Allah knows from eternity and knows in an instant the number
of people who will go to Paradise and the number that will go to
Hell. They will neither be increased or decreased (from what He
knows). Similarly, He knows the acts which anyone will do.
(51) Everyone is eased to what he was created for, and it is the
action with which a man’s life is sealed which dictates his fate.
Those who are fortunate are fortunate by the decree of Allah.
Likewise, those who are wretched are wretched by the decree of
Allah.
(52) The exact nature of Allah’s decree is Allah’s secret in His
creation. Neither any angel near the Throne nor any sent messenger
has been given any knowledge of it. To delve into it or reflect too
much about it only leads to destruction and loss, and results in
rebelliousness. One should take every precaution concerning such
investigation, thought, and allowing of doubts to appear. Verily,
Allah has withheld the knowledge of qadr from His creatures and
He has prohibited them from seeking it. Allah says in His Book,
“He is not questioned for His acts, but they are questioned” [21:23].
Therefore, if one asks, why He did that, he has rejected the
command of the Book, and whoever rejects the command of the
Book becomes an infidel.
(53) This is all that people with enlightened hearts need to know,
people who are devoted servants of Allah, and constitutes the degree
of those firmly grounded in knowledge. Verily, knowledge is of two
types: one existent (or accessible) in creation and one inaccessible in
creation. To deny the knowledge that is existent is infidelity; to claim
the knowledge that is inaccessible is also infidelity. Faith is not
confirmed until a person accepts the knowledge that is existent and
abandons seeking the knowledge which is inaccessible.
(54) We believe in the Pen, the Tablet and all that is written on it.
(55) If all creation gathered together to prevent something that Allah
has decreed will occur, they would not be able to prevent it. And if
they all gathered together to have something done that Allah has
decreed will not occur, they would not be able to do it. The Pen has
finished writing whatever will occur until the Last Day.
(56) What has missed someone was not to befall him, and what has
befallen him was not to miss him.
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(57) Everyone must know that Allah already knows everything that
is going to happen in His creation and has fixed their measures
definitively and irrevocably. There is nothing He has created in
either the heavens or the earth that can contradict it, add to it, erase it,
change it, decrease or increase it in any way.
(58) This is a fundamental aspect of faith, a necessary aspect of
knowledge and of our realizing Allah’s Oneness and Lordship. As
Allah has said, “He created all things and ordained them in due
measures” [25:2]; and, “Allah’s command is always a decided
decree” [33:38].
(59) So woe to those who quarrel about fore-ordainment, who delve
into it with a diseased heart, trying to unravel its profound mysteries
through delusions, and who land themselves deep in sin by their
baseless, lying conjectures.
(60) The Throne and the Footstool are realities.
(61) Allah is not in need of the Throne and what is beneath it. He
encompasses all and is above everything. His creation is not able to
encompass Him.
(62) We say with faith, affirmation and submission that Allah took
Abraham as an intimate friend and that He spoke directly to Moses.
(63) We believe in the angels, the prophets and the books that were
sent down to the messengers. We bear witness that they were all
following the path of manifest truth.
(64) As for all those who face our qiblah (ahl qiblatina), we call
them muslim and mu'min, so long as they profess what the Prophet
(peace be upon him) taught, and believe in whatever he said or
enjoined.
(65) We neither enter into vain talk about Allah nor do we dispute
obstinately on the matters of His religion.
(66) We do not dispute about the Qur’an. We bear witness that it is
the speech of the Lord of the Worlds, which the faithful spirit
brought down and communicated to Muhammad, the leader of the
messengers (may Allah’s blessings be upon him and all of his
family). It is the speech of Allah, the Most High, which no speech
of any created being can match. We do not believe that it was
created, and we avoid going against the belief of the Muslim
community.
(67) We do not charge anyone of the ahl al-qiblah with being an
infidel {kafir) for committing a sin, unless he considers it to be
lawful. Nor do we say that sin will not harm the sinner merely
because he has faith.
(68) We hope that the righteous among the Believers will receive
Allah’s pardon and be sent to Paradise through His mercy, but we
cannot be certain about them. We cannot testify that they will
certainly go to Paradise. As for wrongdoers, we pray to Allah to
forgive them. Although we do fear for them, we are not in despair
for them.
(69) Anyone who feels secure (from Allah’s punishment) or who
loses hope (in His mercy) falls outside the realm of Islam. The
correct course for the ahl al-qiblah lies in between these two ways.
(70) One does not leave the realm of iman except by repudiating
what brought him into it.
(71) Iman (faith) is to profess with the tongue and believe in the
heart that all that the Prophet (peace be on him) is authentically
known to have said or enjoined is true. Iman is one, and with regard
to its essence all Believers are equal. They differ only with respect to
their fear of Allah and piety, abstention from following evil desires
and pursuance of what is best.
(72) All Believers are friends (awliya’) of Allah, the All-Merciful.
(73) the most honored of them (the Believers) in the sight of Allah
are those who obey Him most and follow the Qur’an best.
(74) Iman is faith in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers,
the Last Day, and that everything, good and bad, pleasant and
unpleasant, is ordained by Allah.
(75) We believe in all these things. We never discriminate between
one messenger and another. We also believe that whatever they have
taught is true.
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(76) Those of the ummah of Muhammad, peace be upon him, who
commit grave sins (kaba’ir) will not stay in Hell forever, even if
they do not repent, provided they die while Believers in Allah’s
unity and meet Allah knowing Him. They will be absolutely at His
will and judgment. He may forgive and pardon them out of His
mercy if He wills, as He has said in His book, “And He will forgive
anything other than it (shirk) to whom He please” [4:48]. Or He
may punish them in the Fire, as is required by His justice, and then,
out of pity and the intercession of His obedient servants, take them
out thereof and put them in His Paradise. This is because Allah is
the Protector and Patron of those who know Him. He never treats
them in either of the two worlds like those who deny Him and who
are bereft of His guidance and have failed to obtain His protection.
O Allah, Protector of Islam and the Muslims! Keep us in Islam until
we meet You.
(77) We believe that prayer may be offered behind any person from
among the ahl al-qiblah, whether he is righteous or impious. We
also believe in performing the funeral prayer over them upon their
deaths.
(78) We do not “place” any one of them in Paradise or in Hell.
(79) Nor do we charge anyone with not having faith (kufr) or shirk
or hypocrisy (nifaq), as long as they do not openly demonstrate
anything of that nature. We leave what they believe or do in private
to Allah.
(80) We do not believe in taking up the sword against any of the
ummah of Muhammad, peace be upon him, except upon those for
whom it is obligatory.
(81) We do not believe in revolt against our leaders and rulers, even
if they commit injustice, nor do we pray against them or defy their
orders. On the contrary, we believe that obedience to them is a duty
and a part of our obedience to Allah, so long as they do not order
anything sinful. We pray for their safety and piety.
(82) We follow the Sunnah and the jama‘ah, and avoid
disagreement, dissension and sectarianism.
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83) We love those who are just and the honest, and we hate those
who are unjust and dishonest.
(84) Whenever something is not clear to us we say Allah knows
better.
(85) We believe that it is correct to wipe over leather socks, whether
one is traveling or resident, as has been mentioned in the hadlth.
(86) Hajj and jihad will continue until the Last Day under all
Muslim authorities (ull al-amr), pious or impious. They will never
be suspended or abrogated.
(87) We believe in the honorable angels that note down (our deeds).
Allah has appointed them to keep watch over us.
(88) We believe in the Angel of Death, who has been charged with
taking out the souls of the people.
(89) We believe that some people may be punished in their graves if
they deserve it, and that Munkar and Naklr will question people
about their Lord, their religion and their Prophet, as has been
reported by the Messenger of Allah (peace be on him) and the
Companions. We believe that the grave is either a garden of Paradise
or a pit of the Hell-fire.
(90) We believe in resurrection after death and in recompense of
deeds on the Day of Judgment. People will be have their deeds
presented and will be accountable for them. They will be given their
records to read, and will be rewarded or punished. (We also believe)
in the Bridge (sirdt) and the Balance (mizan).
(91) Paradise and Hell have been created and will never perish or
pass away. Allah created them before the world. He allotted some
people for each. Those whom He allotted for Paradise, He did so out
of His bounty for them. And those whom He allotted for Hell, He
allotted because it was required by His justice. Everyone will do
what has been chosen for him, and will go to the place for which he
has been created. Good and evil both have been determined for each
and every person.
(92) The power needed to perform a duty is a gift from Allah, not an
attribute possessed by man, and exists only with the action.
However, power in the sense of health, potential, ability and fitness
of the organs is prior to action and is the basis of obligation. “Allah
does not place on any person a burden greater than he can bear”
[2:286],
(93) Human actions are created by Allah, although they are acquired
by man.
(94) Allah does not impose actions upon human beings except what
they can do, and they are only able to do what He has imposed upon
them. This is the meaning of the Prophet’s words, “There is no
power and no strength save in Allah.” We believe that no one can do
anything or move anything, or abstain from any sin except with the
help of Allah, nor can anyone obey His command and persevere in
obedience except by His grace. Everything happens according to His
will, knowledge, decree and planning. His will rules over all wills
and His decree prevails over all planning. He does what He pleases
and He never commits injustice. “He is not to be questioned for His
acts, but they will be questioned (for theirs)” [21:23].
(95) We believe that the dead benefit from the prayers and charities
offered by the living on their behalf.
(96) Allah answers prayers and fulfills needs.
(97) He controls everything, and nothing controls Him. Without
Him nothing can survive for an instant. Whoever turns away from
Him, even for the blinking of an eye, is ungrateful and courts His
doom (hayn).
(98) Allah becomes angry and pleased, but not like any created
being.
(99) We love all the Companions of the Prophet (peace be on him),
but we do not love any one of them to excess, nor do we disown
any of them. We hate those who hate them or speak ill of them. We
always mention them in positive terms, and believe that to love them
is part of the religion, part of Iman and ihsan; and that to hate them
is infidelity, hypocrisy and transgression.
(100) We affirm that, after the Prophet (peace be on him), the first
rightful heir to the khilafah was Abu Bakr, on the grounds that he
was the best and the most eminent of all the ummah.
(101) The second heir to the khilafah was ‘Umar, may Allah be
pleased with him.
(102) The third heir to the khilafah was ‘Uthman, may Allah be
pleased with him.
(103) The fourth heir to the khilafah was ‘All, may Allah be pleased
with him.
(104) They are the right-principled caliphs and the rightly guided
imams.
(105) We believe that the ten Companions, those whom the Prophet
(peace be on him) named and gave the glad tidings that they would
go to Paradise, will go to Paradise, as he said, and what he said is
hue. Those Companions are: Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman, ‘All,
Talhah, Az-Zubayr, Sa‘d, Sa‘Id, ‘Abdur-Rahman Ibn ‘Awf and Abu
‘Ubaydah Ibn Al-Jarrah, “the trustee of this ummah". May Allah be
pleased with them all.
(106) Whoever speaks well of the Prophet’s Companions, his pure
and pious wives - free from any impurity - and his noble and
righteous descendants - free from any impurity - is free from
hypocrisy.
(107) The scholars of the Elders and their successors, whether they
are hadith and tradition scholars or scholars of fiqh and rational
sciences, should not be mentioned except in good terms. Whoever
speaks ill of them is not on the right path.
(108) We do not exalt any friend (wall) of Allah over any one of His
prophets, peace and blessings be upon them. On the contrary, we
believe that a single prophet (nabi) is greater than all the walis
combined.
(109) We believe in the miracles (karamat) that have proceeded
from them and have been reported by reliable reporters.
(110) We believe in the signs of the Hour, such as the emergence of
the Great Liar (ad-Dajjal), the descent of Jesus son of Mary from
Heaven, and we believe in the rising of the sun from the west, and
the appearance of the Beast of the Earth from its place.
(111) We do not believe in diviners and fortune-tellers, nor do we
believe in those who expound ideas incompatible with the Qur’an,
the Sunnah and the consensus of the ummah.
(112) We believe that keeping together {jama1 ah) is the true and
correct path, and that disunity leads to deviation and torment.
( 113) the religion of Allah in the heavens and on the earth is one,
and it is the din of Islam. Allah has said, “Verily the religion before
Allah is Islam” [5:3]; and, “(Allah) has chosen for you as your
religion Islam” [5:3]. Islam steers a course between excess and
negligence, between anthropomorphism and negation, between
coercionism and libertarianism, between complacency and despair.
(114) This is our faith and our religion in form and spirit. We have
nothing to do with those who differ from what we have said and
elaborated. We pray to Allah that He may confirm us in faith, let us
die upon it, save us from erroneous ideas and heretical doctrines
such as those advanced by the anthropomorphists (mushabbihah),
Mu’tazilah, Jahmlyyah, determinists (jabarlyyah), free-willers
(qadarlyyah), and others who have differed from the Ahl as-Sunnah
wa al-Jama‘ah and fallen into error. We have nothing to do with
them. In our view, they are astray in their thinking and wrongdoers.
And to Allah we turn for guidance and safety.
The end of the text of the Book
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